National & International Conference

 

" Ideal Highway Patrol System for Developing Countries "

Date : Friday, 7th January 2005,
Venue : ASSOCHAM HOUSE, 47 Prithviraj Road, New Delhi.

 

Developing and emerging countries are witnessing a revolution in the growth and development of their highways. These new highways have opened gates to the latest generation high technology automobiles. While in the developed countries of North America, Western Europe and Japan, road deaths have fallen by approximately 10% between 1990 and 2000, developing countries have witnessed a 30 to 100 per cent increase and the problem of road safety continues to worsen.

As per the statistics of the Govt. of India, at least 80,000 people are killed in road accidents every year and about 4,00,000 persons are seriously injured, causing a social loss of approximately Rs.55,000 crores annually. This annual loss is equivalent to the investment in the Golden Quadrilateral National Highways by the Govt. of India. The whole effort of the Govt. of India in developing state-of-art highways is being nullified by the growing rate of accidents and indiscipline on these highways. Highways account for almost 50% of the total road accidents.

Along with the highway development programme, an effective patrol system needs to be implemented which should play a multidimensional role in bringing awareness, education, and enforcement leading to reduction in death, injury, crime and encroachment. This would help in building confidence of safety amongst road users, and will catalyze a process for growth of business, industry, tourism, and social integration. While some countries have implemented demonstratively successful programmes, other developing countries have a long way to go to develop similar systems.

In commemoration of the Road Safety Week The Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) with the support of the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Govt. of India, is organising an International Workshop on “Ideal Highway Patrol System for Developing Countries”.

IRTE is also supported by
World Road Safety Network,
FIA Foundation - UK,
Road Safe - UK,
ITC – the Netherlands,
Delhi Police and
Haryana Highway Patrol & Road Safety in this initiative